Texas County 911 to get upgrades with help from ARPA funds

Upgrades leading to better efficiency and accuracy of 911 services will soon occur in Texas County and the surrounding area, thanks to grant funding through the American Rescue Plan Act approved by the Missouri General Assembly and Gov. Michael Parson.

Nearly $16.6 million in grant funding will be distributed to support improvement projects in 65 counties, including Texas, Douglas, Howell, Ozark and Wright.

Texas County 911 Director Terra Culley said the upgrades will improve response by allowing people calling from a cell phone to be located more accurately. Currently, cell phone signals bounce from tower to tower and may not show a caller’s exact location. Once the upgrades are complete, the caller’s actual location will be shown, not just where the tower is.

“The one constant with technology is that it is always changing,” Culley said. “This change is welcomed, having a positive impact throughout.”

One of the noticeable changes that Texas County citizens will see is the capability to utilize text-to-911.

“The other improvements will be more behind-the-scenes for the caller but will have a helpful influence on the response they receive,” Culley said. “After all the phases have been implemented, rerouting emergency calls to another agency can happen in an instant if the need arises. That agency will not be in the dark when answering. Information such as phone number and map location will be rerouted with that call.”

“The networks will allow for the seamless transition of 911 calls and information sharing among call centers,” Missouri 911 Service Board Executive Director Brian Maydwell said, “allowing for life-saving services like 911 call rollover, a situation in which a citizen may otherwise be required to wait on hold until a call-taker is available.”

It also makes those counties compatible with future Next Generation 911 (NG911) services and connection to a statewide system if one is developed in the future, Maydwell said.

Counties that only have basic services include Shannon, Bollinger, Carter, Ripley, Oregon, Wayne and Clark. They are the last seven counties in Missouri where callers cannot be located when dialing 911 from their cell phones, and some of only about 2% in the United States still using only basic services, Maydwell said.

Currently those counties do not have 911 answering equipment, which means calls go to seven-digit lines where operators do not receive any information on callers or their locations, requiring them to describe those details verbally. Once these projects are completed, two multi-county regions will be interconnected and fully equipped with the technology needed to locate callers and accept text-to-911 messages, Maydwell said.

“We are proud to have all Missourians on track to receive the modern 911 services they deserve and expect,” Gov. Parson said. “These projects will provide lifesaving services to citizens and travelers across Missouri as well as help our first responders do their jobs even better when calls for assistance are made. We’re proud to do our part in helping improve emergency services in Missouri.”

In conjunction, the Missouri 911 Service Board has funded 35 Geospatial Information System grants to create the maps and data needed to implement and deploy NG911, including funds going to Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark and Wright counties. Since the grant program was established in 2023, the board has disbursed $19.4 million to 80 counties, Maydwell said. It will help pay for the implementation of text-to-911, emergency medical dispatch prearrival instructions, improved mapping and interoperability and sharing of 911 services across counties.

Culley was able to obtain a homeland security grant two years ago to update Texas County 911’s mapping system, and finalization of those upgrades was recently completed.

“I worked closely with a great team from GeoComm,” Culley said. “This was a massive project and brought our system up to date.”

The West Plains Daily Quill contributed to this article.

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